Strawberry picking for peanuts

Like thousands of seasonal labourers from eastern Europe, Ivan Borisov believed the hours he would work on a UK fruit farm this summer would make him enough money to justify spending six months away from his wife, Mira, and their newborn baby. Writing in the Independent, Home affairs correspondent Jerome Taylor reports that since arriving in the Herefordshire countryside two months ago Borisov, a professional operator and fluent in five languages, is lucky if he earns more than £45 (€52) at the end of each week for 18 hours' work – the equivalent of £2.50 (€2.90) an hour.

The reason for this is that the company he works for, S&A Produce, one of Britain's largest fruit growers and supplier to large UK supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, rarely gives him any more than four days' work a week and little more than four hours a day. This, coupled with rudimentary accommodation - workers are lodged in six by three metres “pods”, four at a time – leaves Borisov feeling like “a slave”. According to the conditions of his temporary working visa, however, Borisov is unable to seek a better job elsewhere. "I want to go back to Bulgaria,” he says, “but where will I find the money to pay for the flight?"

The facts

S&A Produce – “A minority dislike working for us”

In June S&A Produce, Britain’s largest producer of strawberries, hired more than 2,400 workers, predominantly Romanians and Bulgarians on temporary work visas, reports the Independent on its front page. Unlike other eastern Europeans who have full working rights in the UK, Bulgarians and Romanians who come on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme are unable to change job if they fall foul of employers or dislike conditions. Coming from countries where the average annual income is less than £3,000 (€3480), these seasonal workers are attracted by the UK minimum wage of £5.74 (€6.66) per hour. S&A Produce, however, seems unable to offer full time work. Workers showed the London daily pay slips which, after deductions for accommodation, transport, and eventual medical fees, amounted to between £45 (€52) and £58 (€67) for between 19 to 22 hours work in a week.

Early July S&A Produce fired 346 employees because “the majority of the fruit picking had been completed.” Since which time locals have complained “Bulgarians have been knocking on doors looking for cash-in-hand jobs to earn enough money to return home.” A spokeswoman for S&A Davies said that any accusation that the company was exploiting workers was unfounded. “…84 per cent of the people we had to let go indicated in writing that they would like to come back next year which suggests that it is a minority, not a majority, or workers who have disliked working with us," she said.